On Monday — the day before a citywide homeless-camping ban goes into effect — a small number of protesters and homeless people milled around on the Broadway sidewalk in the shadow of the Capitol discussing their plans.

"Everyone is wondering what everyone else is going to do," said Fillmore Lankford, 44, who has been at the permanent Occupy Denver encampment since October. "I'm leaving, going to go to the mountains and camp like a real human being."

Two weeks ago, Denver's City Council approved the camping ban in a raucous meeting.

Police said they wouldn't target any group, such as Occupy Denver's protest, when the law went into effect. But Cmdr. Tony Lopez said last week that they would expect "people to comply with the ordinance."

He also said the Police Department has over the past seven months "put our best foot forward with Occupy Denver."

The new law forbids anyone from unauthorized camping on public and private land throughout the city and carries the possibility of a $999 fine and a year in jail.

Police say they will enforce the new law with a light touch — arresting people who are noncompliant and who are refusing any help. Arrests or citations, they say, will be a last resort and will not occur if services are unavailable.

The two-week delay in implementation of the new law gave police a chance to train and to inform homeless people what to expect.

The aim of the ordinance, say city officials, is to get homeless people off the streets and into services and shelters.

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The ban ends a provision that allowed people to legally sleep on the city's sidewalks between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. in the downtown business center — an situation that irritated merchants and that city officials say hurt tourism.

Opponents say the law criminalizes homelessness.

"A lot of people are worried," said William Jones, 66, who on Monday was selling the homeless newspaper The Voice on the 16th Street Mall. "I camp out every now and then on the mall. But I won't be anymore."

Bob Plaine, 51, who camps out with Occupy Denver, said he is going to move to a place out of sight off Colorado Boulevard.

"This is not right," Plaine said. "They are making homeless people into outlaws."

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